Business this week

Warren Buffett announced that 40 of America's richest individuals and families had signed the “Giving Pledge”, an agreement he initiated with Bill Gates. They extended an invitation to join to other signatories, who have agreed to donate at least half of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes, or after their deaths.

Can't CrackBerry

Saudi Arabia ordered mobile-network operators to suspend BlackBerry services in the kingdom, because its security agencies cannot crack the smartphone platform's code to monitor exchanged data. The United Arab Emirates plans to do the same in October. The Indian government asked Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry devices, to host a server in the country or face a ban. RIM refused to disclose customer codes, despite the pressure. See article

Meanwhile the company unveiled its new model, the Torch, which will combine touch-screen and keyboard, to fend off the growing threat posed by smartphones made by Apple and Google.

The purchasing-managers index in the euro area, used to measure manufacturing activity, rose to 56.7 in July, up from 55.6 the previous month. The improvement was almost exclusively led by Germany and Italy. French activity growth was at its slowest in ten months, highlighting the asymmetry of the recovery within the 16-nation common-currency area.

Consumer spending and incomes in America were unexpectedly stagnant in June. Spending was flat, after a 0.1% rise in May, while personal income remained unchanged, having risen continuously since September.

Yields on American Treasury bonds reached record lows, amid concern that the country's economic recovery was losing momentum. The dollar reached a three-month low against the euro and a 15-year low against the yen, though it stopped falling after news of private-sector jobs growth.

Quasi-concerned

Alan Greenspan, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve, weighed in on the state of the American economy, saying that it is currently going through a “pause” in a modest recovery, which feels like a “quasi-recession”. He gave warning that a double-dip recession could occur if house prices declined again.

The Federal Trade Commission announced a settlement with Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, which it had charged with anti-competitive behaviour. Under the deal Intel will stop using threats and bundled prices to deter customers from buying competitors' products, and will not retaliate if computer-makers prefer other suppliers. The company, which was fined $1.4 billion in 2009 by the European Commission on antitrust charges, has denied any wrongdoing.

Kinross Gold, a Canadian gold-mining company, agreed to buy Red Back Mining in a $7.1 billion deal. The all-stock acquisition will give the company access to large new gold projects in West Africa.

Extremely dry and hot weather in Russia has caused a sharp reduction in wheat production and spurred the fastest spike in the global price of the crop since 1973. On August 5th the president, Vladimir Putin, announced a temporary ban on the export of grain crops. Similar conditions have affected Ukrainian and Kazakh production, while heavy rainfall is taking its toll on Canadian output.

BNP Paribas posted higher-than-expected profits in the second quarter, driven by a solid performance in its retail operations. The French bank reported a 31% rise in net profit to €2.1 billion ($2.7 billion). Revenues fell by 30% on lower trading and capital-raising activities, mainly attributed to worries about European sovereign debt. See article

A fall in impairment charges drove profits at HSBC for the first half of the year. The British lender saw net profit double to $6.7 billion year-on-year. Investment-banking revenues, however, fell 13% to $5.6 billion. Barclays, another British bank, posted a 44% rise in half-year pretax profits, to £3.9 billion ($6.3 billion). Its investment bank arm, Barclays Capital, reported a 31% profit boost from last year, to £2.5 billion.

In gear

BMW's second-quarter earnings outdid expectations. The German carmaker posted a sixfold year-on-year rise in net profit to €834m ($1.1 billion), led by higher demand for luxury cars in China.

The effects of the 8.5m-vehicle global recall earlier this year did not stop Toyota from posting healthy earnings in its fiscal first quarter. The Japanese carmaker announced quarterly profits of ¥190.4 billion ($2.1 billion), reversing a ¥77.8 billion loss in the same period the year before.